PhantomBigStu

Thought I had posted late in small hours about how it won’t be finished whilst feeling low before bed, managed to get the bay sanded today so will order that paint later, obliterated the decals and panel lines but oh well EDIT: ordered now to hope jadlam dispatching and royal mail get it here on saturday

Had some bad family news that may mean I will lose interest going forward in this but at the moment pushing through this is helping me deal with it so sanded the upper fuselage seams, took a lot and you can still make out the big nose ones with the eyeball on both sides, not sure how to fully eliminate them that isn’t another ineffective filling and sanding cycle.

Late disaster, the gear bay part did not fit needed surgery I'm going to have to order that extra paint to finish it, should add an edit, had some bad personal news yesterday that has really thrown me and may mean I don't bother finishing this by the deadline or even ordering the paint

Guessing Italeri as revell don’t have their own hellcat and legacy hornet and have reboxed those before

IDF blue is fs35622

Mrp don’t do raaf foliage green but they do do fs34092 which is a decent substitute, not sure about earth brown, maybe tamiya xf72 or 79

Well decals on sans the walkways also realised I’d missed the gear door decals underneath so they are next before starting the Matt coat

Not happy, walkway decals have been ruined, way too flexible and can’t get them to unfold even under hot water so I guess I’ll have to remove the rest edit I have after final attempt to salvage the folded ones

Well turns out there is some paint left in my pot, had to cut the bottle to do a touch up, as it’s now only sealed with tape probably won’t last long so better crack on and finish it before it does so in light the underside decals are on, way more on top but they will have to wait till tomorrow, watching the footie

Nice and straightforward kit

Forgot the sprue shots before starting

I’m cursed this gb, here’s my final attempt to get 2 models over the line, had other more ambitious ideas like an angolan su27ub but decided to play it safe as the heard the heller kit is a pig

Right decided this will be a KUTA and I shall enter something else, had considered an angolan SU-27ub in very fetching camouflage but that requires the heller kit in the stash which I heard is a pig, think theres also a single seater which I could use the trumpeter kit also in stash but again I know that's not an easy build. A new thread will appear once I decide.

Cheers, yep looks the academy kit is decent, lack of interior doesn’t bother me, spent way too much time on the one in the revell I did last only to be wasted as the exterior fit was appalling and I never progressed with it. But the dihedral issue would bother me but that might be correctable.

That was a battle, trying to be frugal with paint and just made it, bet next time I open the pot I get nothing, also a bit of dried canopy glue gave me a scare as it dried in a thin line like a surface cracked, so glad it peeled off. Also I bet my decision to not order another bottle of paint will not backfire on me